OSPREYS coach Lyn Jones has welcomed the return to Celtic League action against Leinster Lions today as "an appetiser" for the Heineken Cup.

OSPREYS coach Lyn Jones has welcomed the return to Celtic League action against Leinster Lions today as "an appetiser" for the Heineken Cup.

The Ospreys travel to Leeds for their opening fixture of the European competition on December 7 and Jones sees this weekend's visit of the Irish giants - Heineken Cup semi-finalists last season - as the perfect hors d'oeuvres to the main course.

He said, "We have an appetiser before we move into the European competition and the timing is great.

"The Celtic League hasn't taken centre stage so far with another tournament going on. But that has climaxed now, so you move on to the next.

"We understand and appreciate the magnitude of the opposition and the experience they will be bringing with them."

Jones welcomes World Cup stars Shane Williams, Huw Bennett, Adam Jones, Gareth Llewellyn, Jonathan Thomas and Paul James back to the Gnoll as the Ospreys attempt to get their Celtic campaign on track after successive defeats against Borders, Cardiff and Connacht.

Jones said, "It's nice to have them back from Australia. I think they all performed well. I'm very pleased with every single one of them.

"We have had three losses on the bounce against opposition we wouldn't expect to lose to.

"It's nice to have the World Cup players back in the fold to give us a bit more strength and a platform to be able to play from to challenge teams of Leinster's quality."

But Jones has admitted that he will have one eye on next week's Heineken Cup fixture with the Tykes.

He said, "The European campaign is different to any other competition. The beauty of European rugby is that the knowledge of each other is not that great, and you tend to get a good game of rugby as a result.

"We have Toulouse and Leeds - two teams we haven't got a great deal of knowledge about. But they won't know too much about us either and it'll be interesting to see how it works out."

Jones went on, "I wouldn't be surprised if Leinster are challenging in the top four of that competition [the Heineken Cup] again this year because of the quality and depth they have over in Ireland.

"But the next couple of weeks are massive for us."

Barry Williams is carrying a knee injury and misses out today, although he should be back for the start of the Heineken Cup campaign.

Leinster's Eric Miller has also been rued out after taking a slight knock on the shoulder at training on Thursday.

Des Dillon moves into the No 6 slot and Niall Breslin joins the replacements' bench. Felipe Contepomi makes his first start for the province.